People often tell me that they’ve thought about blogging, but they don’t know if anyone would be interested in what they have to say. Sometimes I wonder why people are interested in what I write, too. =) But the strange and wonderful thing is that my [mis]adventures through life end up helping people along the way. That’s pretty darn cool, and that’s why I don’t mind ‘fessing up even to embarrassing mistakes (like my recent calendar mishaps).

Somehow, from the jumble of technical and life-related posts, this is what Maira got:

Ways in which your blog has already helped me:

• Made me realise that I wasn’t the only introvert geek growing up; and that it’s ok – and even fun – to be like that.
• [your Japan trip] Reminded me of how much I love to learn new languages and new cultures, made me want to go back to learning German (I started studying it on my own earlier this year, in my free time, just for fun).
• Reminded me that I also like making life easier with technology. I caught myself thinking the other day “if only I could set up a keyboard shortcut, so that I could press only ONE key, instead of Ctrl+ ->” (I don’t know why but I don’t feel ergonomically comfortable doing this combination), and then I was like “huh, this is such a Sacha mindeset.”
• Reminded me that I like Science (I gradauted in CS too) and that I like studying, but that spirit got lost somewhere along the way during University years.
• Made me realise that I should use the net more efficiently (blogs, social networks) instead of being a “prisoner” of them (ie, never having time to keep up with people’s posts and updates), RSS could be a good start.
• Made me want to write my own blog. I do have a personal one, but I don’t have much time to write in it (ie, I don’t FIND much time to write in it). Your geeky blog made me realise that maybe writing about geeky trivial stuff can be interesting to other people. Although, in terms of time-optimization, I still think (for me), writing about feelings is more important. Oh, well just some ideas.
• I related a lot to one of your reflections on your trip to Japan: that when you are traveling you don’t have time to waste being introverted in an Internet room, you want to enjoy each moment “out there in the world” as much as you can. I felt like that in my 2006 trip to Canada (more on that later).

Maira Bay de Souza, Brazil

… and if someone like her can learn that from the blog of someone like me, imagine what someone else out there can learn from someone like you. =)